I agree that a garage door is not a facade. And I agree that in a Victorian nieghborhood--or any neighborhood, the new or infill houses should engage the street in the Same Manner as the other houses on the street. But I think there is a difference between engagement and hostility. The Glessner House hardly engages the street but the facade is certainly interesting enough to interest one as you walk by. The thing that I don't like about the house in the original post is the relative blankness of the left, the strange ajar door, and the appearance of mildew--that provides a feeling of neglect. But when I think of my new house for example, the only way that the street could be engaged at all would be to set the house on the rear lot line and obliterate any possibility of a backyard. The front would not be particularly comfortable to use, because it would still be on the sidewalk. But the inside of the house is quite a surprise. Two complete walls of glass, two outdoor spaces in a neighborhood where one's outdoor space may be wide enough for a trashcan, and where most windows must be covered for privacy. In contrast there is ONE window in my entire house that absolutely needs to be covered for privacy (or decency's sake) The other large expanses of glass could go completely uncovered due to their placement. "I would not want to feel as though I had been institutionalized or incarcerated living in one of those concrete fortresses." I can't say that I really understand this comment because most of the houses we are talking about are mostly glass, and engage the outdoors more than a typical house, just not at the front door.

You're making me dizzy.lol. Slow down and make a task list. Get your head focused on just one item at a time and go find it. I'd start with drapes for the dining room and living room and get them hung. From there I'd proceed to find the set for the dining room. That done, I'd take a break and enjoy the holidays and then start on the kitchen backsplash and continue on but taking it slow so as to not make mistakes which only complicate things. You're in over drive, we all do that kind of thinking at times. More importantly enjoy the process.

I would look at an infill patter of stone or a travertine inset. Fireplace below, you get the idea. You can really get some large fancy travertine insets also. Then to make the area more proportional, I would "frame" by adding some wrought iron pieces surrounding the inset.

I'm a lot like Lys. Or maybe like many people. I do have criteria of course..for example I REALLY liked one house, I fell hard for it, I stayed there for an hour I guess, running around like a very joyful agitated hamster lol..but it was 2 bedrooms plus a den while my family needed 4 bedrooms..:) So, I do have criteria, location, architecture, layout, how it will function for my family, whether there is some even remote feeling of privacy..and then there is this intangible feeling. You can quantify the rest of the criteria so other people will understand it. You can't quantify this intangible feeling. Yet it's this feeling you're after. It makes you compromise with many things you'd found uncompromising otherwise. Not the essential things that make you move in the first place-but many others. Sometimes you need to spend time, a lot of time searching for that feeling. Yet it is a bit in the stars-my second home, the duplex condo-it was the first place I saw upon selling our very first apartment, and starting to look for a new home. I saw it and I knew. It was perfect. I did spend several days in looking at more places-just for the good measure. By the end of that week I was back, and brought my then-husband to look at it. He spent there 5 min, said "yes" and we bought the condo. We lived there less than a year-his company sent us to work in the US. we rented it. the renters didn't take a good care of it. to put it mildly. in the end, we decided to sell it-we needed the money, the appreciation was huge, neither of us wanted to handle the renting anymore, and I wanted it to be somebody's who loves it so yes, it was perfect, and it was the right financial move(which was something pretty unpredictable-again, just luck)-but it didn't mean that I got to enjoy it. I tasted the enjoyment of living in a perfect home-and then it was thousand miles from me, and there wasn't much I could do about it. You're not very picky, melle. You just want to love your place. And you want to spell to yourself what do you need for it. But a big part of this is intangible. And unpredictable. And you can find all your boxes checked, but not to like the place enough-or you can't but you love the place. Or as in the experience I tried to share-you can fall for the house that is perfect for you, and just get lucky, and then you stay put -or you don't, because life happens. Continue to look, since our home should bring us joy (and you're very lucky to be able to choose. we all are. i'm deadly serious right now). be prepared with your finances-just in case, and treat it a bit as something that will happen as it pleases. once upon a time(c)